News Disney and Miral Announce New Seventh Theme Park Planned for Abu Dhabi

[BasiltheBatLord]

So here's my biggest question about all of this. Logistically they cannot run building and designing this this out of California, The time zones would be ridiculous. Is Lake Nona back on the menu? Emirates flies direct from MCO to AUH after all.

They will set up an Imagineering office in the UAE for construction and design. Same way they handled Tokyo and all other foreign parks.

 

[WoundedDreamer]

I can see a clause in the contract allowing Disney to buy an ownership stake in a certain period of time, perhaps at a fixed price, once they can gauge how successful it will be, for the very reason you cited regarding OLC. This very well may have been a non-negotiable for them. If Miral wanted the deal, they'd agree to this clause.

I was wondering if they had something like that in the contract, but they didn't mention it in the 10Q. This is very early in the project, but I'd be publicizing that clause if I had it. It's possible that it will be included in the final contract. According to the 10Q, the project contract has not yet been finalized. There are still important elements that have to be worked out.

Disney should absolutely ensure they can acquire an equity stake. Disney has all the leverage. Even if they aren't planning to exercise the clause, they should still have that in their back pocket.

 

[doctornick]

So there’s already been the joke about having stuff built in UAE and copying it at WDW. But I do wonder if having to build in an environment with an important eye to keeping out heat will be fruitful in having thing to add to WDW that would work well there

 

[Disgruntled Walt]

Well. This is interesting. I already knew the company had no morals, so I don't really care about who they're partnering with for this.

I think it's rather amusing that everyone is so disgusted, but they're fine with Disney partnering with the Chinese government, which has oppressed so many.

 

[lazyboy97o]

So here's my biggest question about all of this. Logistically they cannot run building and designing this this out of California, The time zones would be ridiculous. Is Lake Nona back on the menu? Emirates flies direct from MCO to AUH after all.

Their last park, Warner Bros. World Abu Dhabi was designed in California.

 

[marni1971]

Honestly, this has almost no effect on me. There is zero chance I would visit that park.

Existing fans visiting will be a bonus. It’s not built for “us”. It’s for a new market, paid for by someone else.

 

[Tjaden]

I'm surprised the chatter isn't partially about this line from Iger from the NYT article.

“In looking at some research that we’ve done recently, we determined that, for every person visiting one of our parks, there are 10 people in the world that have a desire to visit,” Mr. Iger said. “One of the biggest reasons they don’t — everybody always thinks immediately it’s affordability. It’s not. It’s accessibility. It’s a long trip to get to where we are for a lot of people.”

 

[LittleBuford]

Existing fans visiting will be a bonus. It’s not built for “us”. It’s for a new market, paid for by someone else.

Disney is very popular in the region. I've no doubt this park will get a lot of visitors.

 

["El Gran Magnifico"]

Existing fans visiting will be a bonus. It’s not built for “us”. It’s for a new market, paid for by someone else.

What you think that DVC is gonna look like? 7,000 stories high with elevators for the Ferrari? I'd bet the DVC showroom they're gonna build will be as big as Ft Wilderness.

 

[Sir_Cliff]

They could have built a Shanghai or even WDW sized resort given the right location in the UAE. It would have been a long-term deal and required quite a bit of investment, but they could have done it. Building it on Yas Island is the easy way out. They will build it and you will get at least 5 or 10 million visitors minimum from Disney, probably more if they would have legitimately tried to build it out themselves instead of making a relatively small investment. This pigeonholes them in a way that I'm honestly a little shocked by location-wise. Can't really fit an entire WDW style resort there unless they bulldoze other already existing parks!

As I noted elsewhere, this will legitimize the UAE as a theme park destination, and will skyrocket their visitor numbers. This isn't about a current visitor play, this is about 10 years from now. It's actually really smart, arguably would have been even better 10 years ago. (But I also might be a little biased because I've been studying the tourism industry in the UAE and Gulf monarchies for years and have been saying that Disney is going to go to the Middle East for probably the last 10 minimum.)

Thanks for that.

To be honest, I am still a little sceptical this market could support a Shanghai or WDW sized resort just based on how many international visitors it would need to attract to compete with the numbers those resorts bring in. Apparently Warner Bros. World on Yas Island attracted 1.8 million visitors in 2023, so maybe a Disney theme park could do reasonable multiples of that. I just struggle to see where the 10 million+ visitors would come from if you were trying for a larger resort and it makes me think a little of other international resorts that have struggled following very rosy projections about how many people would flock to a Disneyland just because it was a Disneyland. Hong Kong Disneyland, for example, reached 7.6 million at its peak despite being in the centre of a far more populous region and being virtually next-door to an airport that handles more than twice as many passengers a year than that of Abu Dhabi.

You obviously know the market much, much better than I do, so there quite probably are things I am not seeing!

 

[thomas998]

I’d argue HK is still the worst park for heat, Abu Dhabi has a very dry heat

A dry heat is fine when it's in the 90's... but we are talking 110... when you get into triple digits I don't care if its a dry heat or humid heat, it's still too hot to enjoy anything.

 

[marni1971]

I'm surprised the chatter isn't partially about this line from Iger from the NYT article.

To touch on your quote, travel time to Abu Dhabi is roughly the same for Europeans as Florida is (and a quick scan for me says flight prices are comparable)

 

[thomas998]

Explanation: As a distraction during todays earning call, that's all.

That and the fact that it won't cost them anything because another company is doing all the work... This is basically just selling off IP to a part of the world they were never going to go into.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

That and the fact that it won't cost them anything because another company is doing all the work... This is basically just selling off IP to a part of the world they were never going to go into.

Fair point…but just because you can, doesn’t mean you should

 

[thomas998]

Fair point…but just because you can, doesn’t mean you should

Oh, I don't think it is a good idea. It reminds me of the 80's when EIsner ended the showing of classic films in theaters on a rolling basis and jumped on the stick it on video and sell the video... It made a lot of money at the moment but it cost them long term. That's what you will have with this. Assume it works out well, who are the biggest targets of the park going to be? Lots of Europeans will likely be their target and if that happens it pulls potential visitors from WDW where they get all the money the visitors spend and instead they get whatever percent they have negotiated in this deal. I suspect if things were going well at Disney they wouldn't have done the deal. I see it as showing how desperate Iger is.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

I suspect if things were going well at Disney they wouldn't have done the deal. I see it as showing how desperate Iger is.

…the next shoe to drop is gonna spur some interesting discussion…guaranteed

 

[ᗩLᘿᑕ ֊ᗩζᗩᗰ]

Question is do they fall into the trappings of large single IP-based lands or go the route of old-school Disneyland with themed regions comprised of individual attractions? Hoping it's closer to the Disneyland of Yesteryear but I've a feeling it'll be a massive IPCOT with emphasis on flashy innovations and style over substance.

 

[bjlc57]

if disney was really spending money it should be another park in Orlando and not putting bandaids on the current parks..

 

[Tha Realest]

Well. This is interesting. I already knew the company had no morals, so I don't really care about who they're partnering with for this.

I think it's rather amusing that everyone is so disgusted, but they're fine with Disney partnering with the Chinese government, which has oppressed so many.

Actually when some were engaging in the fantasy that WDW / DCL would move its operations to NC we pointed out the hypocrisy of their China associations.

 

[ᗩLᘿᑕ ֊ᗩζᗩᗰ]

if disney was really spending money it should be another park in Orlando and not putting bandaids on the current parks..

Strike that, reverse it.